MUSLIM GROUP DEMANDS MD. SCHOOL DROP JEWISH HOLIDAYS

Muslim group protests school calendar (JTA)

A Muslim group is reportedly demanding that a school system in Maryland remove Jewish holidays from its calendar. The Towson Times reported that The Baltimore County Muslim Council battled the Baltimore County school system for three years over adding two Islamic holy days, Id al-Fitr and Id al-Adha, to its calendar, which would make them vacation days. When the request was not submitted to a vote, the Muslim council demanded that the Jewish holidays on the calendar be dropped, calling it an issue of equity, said the Times. The move "is an attempt to wage de-facto warfare between Muslims and Jews" in the county, said Arthur Abramson, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council. The Times quoted him as adding that the decision to have Jewish holidays adopted as vacation days was economic, since it is too costly to hire substitutes for all the observant Jewish teachers.